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hearthman: they must not be installing many IPI units over where you are... Although you probably dont do so many warranty calls like we do. Thats where hit most of the IPI stuff right now. Our division had to FIGHT with the RDC a year or two ago to make them stock more IPI units. We kept telling them thats all we were going to sell and they kept running out.... grrr.... They figured it out now and the only standing pilot stuff we sell is stoves and inserts.

One of my guys had a fun startup on an IPI unit today. Called me 3 times before he got it working. Replaced the IPI module, then the pilot. Ended up being that the ground wire in the harness was broken someplace under the shielding. Snipped the wire near the molded plug and added a new piece on and it worked fine. BTW I never suggested replacing the pilot... that was silly of him to try. If there is continuity from the rod tip to the spade on the end that should be fine.

IPI rates

Actually, IPI accounts for most direct vents sold in this Region by FHH by Imperial Edict. It has been this way for the last few yrs. While FHH tends to do a good job servicing what they sell, I do come across a few of their standing pilot units from about 3 yrs or more. In chatting with their new Regional Field Ops Manager near me ( an old friend) their startup program I instituted 6 yrs ago is now so successful, they spend most of their time doing previews, postviews and out of warranty service and their service depts. have become profit centers. They have reduced incidents arising out of new unit problems to just about nil. He also informed me their techs are so thorough on first trips that by following the protocols I laid down and not just those from FHH's National Field Ops Mgr. (J.P.), they rarely have callbacks. My protocols exceeded those from you know who.

All callbacks are now tracked on a white board for any visitors to see all pending cases, the nature, and date scheduled to respond. When I was out visiting 3 weeks ago, the board had one entry at the height of the Silly Season. Funny what happens when you have a tech who is qualified, trained and properly equipped & stocked to perform a basic startup check to identify and correct the most basic problems before the new homeowner even takes possession. They went from being cursed by builders to their service being used as a marketing tool for new business.

I'm now consulting with area stove shops and hearth service companies in a similar fashion to raise the bar and turn a dept. formerly seen as a necessary evil into not only a profit center but the company's forte.

Maybe then it isn't just the reliability of the IPI system itself but also a reflection of who is installing them and doing startup checks. Food for thought.

We turned a profit in the service dept this past year for pretty much the first time ever. We hardly ever have callbacks on startups and new units. We do get the occasional tricky service call that takes a few trips to figure out. The worst is when you cannot reproduce the problem and the homeowner does not have enough knowledge to explain the problem properly.

you do have an ipi. most of the service calls we get are the transformer is not plugged in, due to the electrician unplugging when installing the line.
the plumber when connecting the gas line often pulls out all the wires. otherwise its pretty much bullet proof.

WSK100 -- Rocker Operation and Battery

I'm planning to install a WSK100 to the HnG Cosmo SLR.

I am looking at the WSK100-HNG install manual; it says nothing about leaving batteries in without sucking them dry, and automatically switching to battery backup on power failure. Where do I find out more? This is a critical feature for me.

Also, it looks like the WSK100 disables the BRN/BRN lines that the stock WSK-21 rocker uses for on/off. The new switch offers GRN/YEL/RED lines, but I don't know which is burner on/off. Is there still an on/off line? Can I use the BRN/BRN on the WSK controller to get my home automation to turn on/off the burner?

Last edited by CeeDee; 01-30-2009 at 01:07 AM.
Reason: <thought it was the wrong thread>

You can only have one wall control. Either use your home automation system or use a HNG wall control. FYI I think the WSK100 is discontinued so you should be looking at the WSK200 which is the same thing except it can also control a fan, which I don't think is an option for the cosmo. You would just have an extra useless button. But hay maybe they brought the WSK100 back also and forgot to tell us, would not surprise me.

On both of these controls (100 and 200) you can leave the batteries in all the time if you want, it auto switches to battery power if the module looses power. I don't know what kind of damage the heat / cool would do to them though.

Batteries and Heat?

Is there any reason why I cannot relocate the battery pack (via 18/2 wire) downstairs to another room? Then heat isn't a problem, and changing batteries is simple(r). Also, am I correct that the WSK100 prevents the previously mentioned battery splitting problem from power being fed back to the battery pack?

I'm disappointed that I can't have HA and a wall switch -- I was hoping to have the HA act as a remote switch so I'd have the best of both worlds. Since we have electric (geothermal) heating in a very cold climate (Canada), I wanted to have HA able to call on the fireplaces in power-outage situations. The only way to achieve this seems to be with the WSK-300 thermostat -- right?

With regard to WSK100, they're discontinued but some places still have stock. I got one from Wood Energy Systems in Edmonton, AB, Canada. Apparently they have a couple of dozen left.

You could probably run the battery pack to another place, never tried it. Yes the WSK100/200/300 prevents the voltage backfeed that the standard system has.

I had a handicapped customer that wanted to hook thier fireplace with a WSK300 into thier home remote system. I boggled my mind for an hour trying to figure it out. I even cut apart a WSK300 harness and rigged something up on our showroom but could not get a seconardy source to turn on the fireplace.

One thing you could do would be to use a standard wall switch and also get a "CABIN-KIT" but do not hook up the pilot switch. You would loose the ability to turn on the pilot (which is a feature of the WSK100) but the CABIN-KIT has a battery backup relay which auto switches to battery power when normal power is lost.

Secondary Remote Switch

This is very helpful. Thank you.

I had a similar question about how to connect garage lifters to home automation. The general technique seems to be to open the switch and wire a relay in parallel to the pads of the actual contact for the on/off button. For a garage door opener, that's a potential $50 loss, and limited risk. For a fireplace ...

I've been looking for a cabin kit, but I can't find out anything about it.

You wont find much info about it. Not a well known item. I can tell you what it is. Part number is "CABIN-KIT". It comes with a pilot switch which goes under the fireplace, you MUST have this on to use the fireplace (which is why I said don't install it). It also comes with a relay for the battery backup system which is the part you want. It would allow you to use a normal light switch to turn the unit on/off and you could also hook to the home remote system in parallel with the normal switch. Only one would work at a time, if you turned it on with remote you would have to turn it off that way. The CABIN-KIT relay would allow you to keep batteries in the pack all the time without them getting voltage back-fed into them.

I don't understand some of the abbreviations but I do noticed various errors. I will give you a hint. The brown turns on the pilot and the green turns on the burner. Looking at a wire diagram for the WSK-MLT might shed more light. You really should have a qualified tech doing this who understand the wiring of these units.